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March 08, 2014

Disney discussion (part two)

The first three princess
movies—Snow White (1937), Cinderella (1950), and Sleeping Beauty (1959)—establish a
baseline for the rest of the films. The three heroines of these movies test
drove the model upon which the Disney princess franchise has been built (thus,
the beginning category of “once upon a time”). Snow, Cinderella, and Aurora all
grew up in unconventional homes; wicked stepmothers raised the first two while
the third was raised in near isolation by three scatterbrained fairies. None were
exactly part of a nuclear family. Growing up, these horrifying home lives caused
the biggest disconnect between the princesses and my reality. I could believe
in talking animals (my stuffed animals totally
replied to my babbling, you know they did) and happily ever after(s), but I
could never believe that parents were removable or that adults in charge didn’t
love you. What kind of fairytale is that?

So, familial relationships didn’t exactly work out for
these test-dummy princesses. Unfortunately, their other interpersonal
connections don’t fare much better. Snow White seems the best adjusted, since
her dwarf friends are at least humanoid; Cinderella and Aurora both appear to
only have animal pals. While I will admit to wishing that I’d had mice buddies
to help me do chores in a sing along fashion, I could do without the singularly
negative human interactions and the stepfamily servitude. Those, strangely,
weren’t as alluring.

Then
there are the princes. While the whole, “you’ve only seen him once and you think it’s love?” incredulity didn’t really hit me
until I rewatched the films as an older individual, I did notice that the
princes in these three films were not all that impressing. Snow White’s love
interest is only referred to as “the Prince” and they don’t even sing together
when they meet. Clearly, not true
love. He doesn’t attempt retribution against the evil queen for his
beloved—instead, the hag is struck by lightning, crushed under a boulder, and
picked at by vultures (which is a little harsh, Disney, you must admit). Also, no
matter how pretty she is, it is weird to come across a near stranger in the
woods and kiss her corpse, dude. Like
Snow’s Prince, we don’t know much about Cinderella’s “Prince Charming.” We know
that he needs his parents’ help to find a girl and thinks that small feet are
the only requirement a queen needs to rule. We don’t even get his name, but
clearly this guy shouldn’t be running a kingdom any time soon. Philip (Aurora’s
fiancé from birth, but hey, he’s got
a name!) does some pretty impressive landscaping when he hacks through all
those thorns. He is lucky to have magical help while going after the dragon,
because throwing your sword was a
horrible idea that could have led to everyone dying (just saying). He then
decides to copy Snow’s creepy boyfriend by kissing Aurora’s eternally
slumbering form. Basically, it all comes down to this;Snow
and Cinderella should have gained autonomy way before any princes came
knocking—seriously, did they not think of just leaving?—and Aurora should have asked questions and actually
listened to the answers—you had one job,
don’t touch the needles and avoid forcing magical sleep on everyone. With these
three, I can see where the angry mob of parents comes from. Snow, Cinderella,
and Aurora don’t doanything; things
are done tothem. That’s not to say
they aren’t good models to teach your daughters from; these stories leave
something to be desired, but that shows young girls that there is more to life
than being pretty, polite, and getting the guy.

2 comments

I seriously loved this post!When I was younger I had imaginary friends who were mice, I'm pretty sure Cinderella inspired this. In snow white, when she's singing by the well the prince actually does come up and join her! However, kissing a dead corpse held by dwarfs in the middle of the woods is a bit strange. Then getting up to ride a horse with the creeper...come on Snow. Cinderella just needed an escape. What's a better escape than royalty? c;

I'm so glad you liked the post! I love love love Disney, this series of posts is inspired by an assignment I did last semester for my creative non-fiction class. I had to choose an argument about Disney, and this one seemed like more fun! I like to poke fun at the things I'm a fan of :)

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